No matter what genre a reader prefers to read--some want fast-paced action, others want a slower paced voyage, perhaps even a love story--but EVERY reader wants to care about the main character(s).

Compelling characters, I believe, are THE most important part of any story. Without rich, intriguing, believable characters, it doesn't matter what stunning plot or adventure the book may have in store for us. We won't be reading it.

I'm a very character driven writer (and reader) and as such I work hard to bring my characters to life. I want my readers to believe my characters are so real they could smell them, reach out and touch them. I want them to think about them and care about them long after the last page.

So how do I (try to) do this?

I know this may be unusual, (or not?) but my main characters usually come to me out of nowhere, fully formed. It is then up to me to get to know them and understand their journey and motivations. (A lot of my first draft is spent doing exactly that.)

Here is my basic process before starting a novel:

*First, I won't bother starting any process until a character has bugged/niggled/begged me to listen. If I find I can't get him/her/them out of my head and I'm genuinely interested in knowing more...then I know it's time to hang out with them.

*I sit with my notepad (yellow legal pad or spiral notebook) and we chat. I take notes. I ask them about their past and their favorite foods and movies. I ask them about their fears and regrets, their hopes and dreams. But, usually, they tell me to shut up and urge me to get to the story...they have a lot more important things to tell me and show me. Usually they grab me by the arm and say "hurry up, slowpoke, let's roll!".

*This is when I KNOW I'll have to learn the basics about them and their character flaws and favorite movies etc., during the journey. Because now my laptop is open, a new document is open and I'm typing furiously, trying to keep up with their story.

This goes on until I come to the end and have completed a first draft: a beginning, middle and end. During this rough draft I have come to know my characters quite well and have the basics of what their story is about. I know how they dress and why. I know what they like to eat, and where they live and if they're tidy or a slob or somewhere in between. I know their friends. I know if they have any pets. I know their jobs, economic status and spending habits. In fact, I know most of their habits, good and bad, by the end of my first draft.

Then comes the HARD part... *sigh*...

*The second draft (the first round of revisions) is where my work really begins. This is where I hack at the cliches, the plot holes and, most importantly, fine tune the character's emotional arc.Before I start on the second draft, I interview ALL the characters, get to know them better, deeper. I get invasive in the extreme. And I don't let them talk me out of it.

I go back to that notebook and do a thorough bio on EVERY character in the book. (which I can also use to make sure my story is consistent in future drafts) I want to know everything that makes them tick...their mommy/daddy-issues, what their childhood was like, do they have nightmares, did they ever wet their bed...everything. Deep stuff. Stuff that pisses them off. Stuff that they often try and lie to me about or at least underplay it. But, this too tells me a lot. Most of this won't make it into the book, but it helps me know how a characters would react in a given situation, what choices they would make. This Deep Bio helps me know why and how they came to be the person I have spent time with, their deep, dirty secrets. (which I may get to exploit later! He he!)

* Regarding names: I find this to be one of the most important components to my character. I cannot write the first word until I know, am sure of, my MCs names. There's a lot at stake with a name. We can tell a lot about a person by their name and any nicknames they go by. I work hard to get names right.

*Just because you now know every detail about a character and her surrounding, doesn't mean you have to bore your reader with every little detail. Less is more. The point of you taking the time to learn every detail about your character is to know their motivations, what makes them tick.

*I love unique (but believable) characters with quirks and depth. These are the characters that I remember for years to come.

Lola GREAT post! I think a great character propells the story! If I don't care about a character by the end of the first chapter--ba bye book. I will keep reading if I like a character even if the plot is not interesting to me. Bottom line I'm a sucker for great characters lol!

Loved this post! Very different from the others I've read but all the same it's still true! This blogging experiment has been a huge success, even though I have 130 more to visit. Oh well it was all worth setting up and joining forces with Elana & Alex!

Great post, fab Lola!! Knowing your characters inside out, upside down and any which way but loose is a definite plus to writing in a less is more way - as you say, compelling characters!! Oh and getting the names right - that's enough to give me a headache - but it must be the right name for the right character!

Great stuff here, Lola, especially tuning in to the deep stuff of character beyond the surface details. Like you, I also do tons upfront in developing the story people before I can delve into the story events.

Awesome post Lola! I love how you describe how you get to know your characters. I found out that that's a lot of what my first draft is, just getting to know my character. So your advice for the second draft was very helpful for me, cuz that's coming up for me :)

My brain works backwards of most people's. Most people are inductive. They pull the pieces together in order to understand (or create) the whole. For some reason, I'm deductive. I get an encompassing picture of the whole and then work through that to get at the pieces.

It wasn't really until I read your post here that I thought about how different that makes my approach to characters. If I started like you do, I would go absolutely nowhere. I have to start with the *snap of the fingers* big picture of the character and then work out all those other details through the story.

As a matter of fact, now that I think about it, that may very well be the entire point of my books. Hmm...

Such good advice! I try to do character bios before my first draft, but they always change as I write, so doing the bio after that first draft as well is a good idea. I love digging into their pasts and discovering their secrets! Thanks!

Awesome process! I don't do this, like at all. In fact, it gives me hives to think this hard about my characters. Mine don't come fully formed, and I have no idea who they really are -- until that first draft is written. Then I can go back and during the second messy-clean-up second draft, really get my story and character down.

I love that you took us through the entire process. From conception to revisions! So so helpful. This experiment is turning out fantastic! By the end of today by brain is going to explode but I will know how to create a damn compelling character or 50. ;P

Hi Lola L-O-L-A Lola! Thanks for sharing your character process. I can take some good queues from your discipline.

Excellent point about not needing to share all the details with readers. Too much detail is a sure way to kill reader interest, but that doesn't mean it's not worth the time to get to know our characters that in depth. Thanks for the post. I'm loving this experiment!

Oh man, you wait to write up bios until after the first draft? Whoa. Although I bet it comes more easily then, though, since you've already been hanging with them so much. Don't you just love it when they practically write the story for you though?

Great post! And thanks for the reminder that I signed up for this! LOL!

I love it when I'm slapped in the face by a quirky character. Sure, we all love to cheer for the underdog, the nerd, but when a character hits you with a trait so unique, so bizarre, I sit up, take notice, and (love them or hate them) I am pulled into the story until the end.

Interesting that you don't interview your characters til after the first draft. You may be on to something there. :)I'm your follower number 499 ... really wanted to be 500, but I'll be the stepping stone to get you to 50. :) Happy writing! And thanks for visiting my blog.

Lola, thanks for sharing these ideas about characters. I am not a fiction writer but would imagine that characters come from real life -- people you already know -- then are adorned and modified to claim them as your own. But it sounds like your characters are born in your head. Very cool.

Wow - you take the same approach to your characters as me! (Except for the names - I`m picky about names, too, but I go ahead and start writing without them and figure them out once the story is well under way.) I like the way you presented this post. Thanks for the tips!

I'm in awe of your second-draft process. Interviewing every character. I've interviewed MCs and found that amazing but never tackled the whole cast. I can see how it would add great depth and eliminate any cardboard-character situations.

Dude, I am super intimidated by your character approach. I am a plot driven kind of girl, and as such have sometimes left my characters to flounder in the squalor of undefinition. Yeah, that's a word. Maybe. But I am learning (painfully) that compelling characters are really what drive a story forward. Siiiiiiiiiigh, soooooo much work.

Great post, thanks for the info. I agree, a bio is important, otherwise, how do we really know who our characters are? I have a standard bio sheet I use, and keep adding things when new ideas come along.Happy weekend,Karen

Hello Lola, I am Yvonne. I thoroughly enjoyed your post.It was interesting what makes a writer write and what you expect of the characters you create.I decided to sign up fir this blogfest on the spur of the moment today, I write poetry and most poems consists of my life's expereiences, I have one book to my credit called Negative V. Positive, called because I started out as a negative person and ended up positive. Good luck with your writing,Yvonne.

My characters ALSO seem to come mostly formed but MAN do you do a lot more work than I do to get them down! I guess I need to see them in action to know all the details, so I put them in a couple scenes to get to know them.

Names--yes, I completely understand. I hate not knowing a character's name. I made the fatal mistake of writing a whole novel with temporary names, just to get it done, and now I have a cast of characters with the *wrong* names, but I can't figure out what to replace them with... I associate the bad ones with the characters too much, you know?

YES! I am so incredibly happy that someone else is as unusual as I am!!! I always fret about everyone always talking about needing to discover their characters, shaping them, creating them, making character sheets so they know all of this stuff about them. I always felt like I was a fraud or something because I never had to do any of that. My characters all came to me fully formed, bugging and harassing me and never shutting up. But I never made them, they just were. I got to know them by spending time with them, hanging out - like normal people.

Interesting post, Lola. I write my character profiles for every character in my story before I begin writing. That way I already have a strong foundation of knowledge about my characters as I start to write them. The words come easier to me then.

Really? You find the second draft the hard part? I LOVE the second draft. The first draft is always the hardest for me. I work much better and can get much more creative once I got the base written. Great post!

Great post!Although my process might be a bit different - I have a tendency to jump into the story, then take notes about my character along the way - I agree with knowing the characters inside and out, knowing their backstories, and then just giving the reader tidbits through action, dialogue, and the way each character sees their world.I love your examples too!

Sometimes my characters come to me fully formed, but not as often as I'd like! Sometimes it seems harder to fit them to a story than create a character for a story already in mind, though. I definitely agree with your take on a name - it often seems to be the most important thing, as a wrong name can make the character seem to be a person you don't want them to be.

Hello! Yes, all very good points. I meet my characters in th first draft,then really get to know them in subsequent drafts. I think that's my favorite part of writing--getting to know the characters that inhabit my story. I interview them too!

What a fantastic post Lola. I love how you go into detail about your technique, and interviewing your characters is a great idea!!! Have taken on board all you said and I know it will make my own characters so much more real to me and my readers :)

Hi Lola, glad I found your post amongst the long list at Elena's blog.

That is one heck of a process. I haven't yet learned to be anywhere near as thorough with my characters, but all the advice is sound. You are lucky that your characters are so eager to tell their stories that you have to scramble to keep up.

I'm glad you mentioned character interviews, that has helped me out in the past. And I am so with you on needing to know their names before going any further. I blogged about both of those aspects earlier on this year. Glad to hear someone else feels that way too.

Er, other than the interview stuff, are you sure I didn't write this? Seriously scary, L ;) Really. The only difference is that I let them tell me all those personal things during the draft - they just don't get left in.

* Regarding names: I find this to be one of the most important components to my character. I cannot write the first word until I know, am sure of, my MCs names. There's a lot at stake with a name. We can tell a lot about a person by their name and any nicknames they go by. I work hard to get names right.

BEAUTY! I was just thinking on this today.

I do much the same with my characters. My current piece I stopped and let it settle after about 10kw.

Why is that?

Because I didn't love my character. My last words on that draft were these: Conrad, I do not love you.

Then I quit.

I don't take compulsive notes like you, but I do store it in my noggin. I figure if I can remember it, it's important, and if I have to write it down to remember it, it's not important.

Thank you for taking me into your process. I always wonder how everyone else is doing it. I found a lot of similaries between the way you start and the way I start and I picked up a few new things in the way you approach the second draft.

I truly believe your character are extremely compelling and memorable. Great job!

Great! I love how you tell us exactly how you go about your bios and writing! I generally am all cool with characters yet totally suck when it comes to opening the laptop and getting stuck into the he said she said crap. Blah! :P

I found your post intriguing, because you're one of the few writers I've ever come across in actual reality (read: the blogosphere) who says their characters from to them as full people. Others I've met assemble their characters.

May your pen be mighty

About Me

Lola Sharp

My name is Lola. (I'm not a showgirl) Yes, L-O-L-A Lola. It's the least of my worries. Let's move on, shall we?
This blog is mostly about my misadventures on the journey to publication and beyond. My passion for lush prose, quirky characters, art, music, literature, performing arts and anything creative will be a major theme here. This journey of mine will not always be pretty. Much like rubbernecking a train wreck, I know sometimes you just can't help but look at the carnage that is often my life. So strap on your neck brace, helmet and 5-point harness and come along for the ride!
Licentia poetica.